f you don't count double answers, but split answers like the ketores (4) and the nesiim (12) my answer count is 61 as of the time of this submission (That includes the answer of the 70 answers). 9 more to go! –
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YDKAug 3 '10 at 17:33

2

Since the number of answers given to this question on mi.yodeya is not particularly notable in the realm of Jewish life and learning, I think we can ignore that from the list of answers, defusing Dave's paradox.
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Isaac MosesAug 3 '10 at 18:21

I'll take up the list - no incentive needed. Please comment if you disagree with my count. Some answers seem the same to me. Some similar answers can be counted separately if individually significant.
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YDKAug 4 '10 at 1:50

Yasher Koach for the great job. If you want to trim it to 70, you can easily combine 22 and 23.
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DaveAug 4 '10 at 3:13

1

I'm counting the nesiim separately b/c a) Isaac's svara; b) they are seperate people/basins and were brought independently (which could be [a]). I only left out the Ibur b/c you commented recently on 100ths. Dave, I thought that 22 and 23 were independently significant even if they sound the same.
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YDKAug 4 '10 at 3:32

The chilazon that is used in the
manufacture of techeiles comes up
from the sea once every seventy
years. (Menachos 44a)

The animal called אפעה ("vipers" -
Artscroll) becomes fertile seventy
years after birth, and the carob tree
does not bear finished fruit until
sevety years from its planting.
(Bechoros 8a, acc. to Rashi)

Seventy are the "days of our years"
(Tehillim 90:10), and one who reaches
that age is in the category of שיבה
(Mishnah, end of Avos).

The Babylonian exile lasted seventy years.

The first four spices listed in the ketores recipe (tzari, tziporen, chelbenah, levonah) each had a weight of seventy maneh.

Once every seventy years, the young Kohanim in the Temple would extract the congealed wine from the shissin into which the Nesachim (libations) were poured. (Me'ilah 11b)

(It fits the rhythm of the song ... or did we forget all about that a long time ago?)

And the old story of the guy who said the entire book of Psalms every day, his rabbi comments, "it took King David seventy years to write Psalms, and you polish it off in two hours?" (Or something like that; please correct me on the story.)

While on the topic of the Nesiim, seventy are the shekels' weight of the silver basin each Nasi brought, a bit less than three lbs. (Plus the weight of the flour it contained; as we don't know the shape of the basin -- Kodshim experts, do we? -- we can't tell it's volume; though I suppose we could guess some reasonable shapes and calculate accordingly.)

Seventy are the bulls brought as olah-offerings on Sukkot, 13+12+11+10+9+8+7. As the Vilna Gaon famously observed, on some of the days the goat offering is called a "se'ir", and on some it's called a "se-ir izim." (The JPS translation linked just calls both of them a "he-goat.") Sure enough, there are 35 bulls brought on "se'ir" days, and 35 bulls brought on "se'ir izim" days. Question: is the division given in the Chumash the only way to get 35 + 35?

The Sforno says the bulls represent getting the big picture -- love and fear of G-d. And the diminishing means that over history, the Jews will be observing all sorts of rituals, but increasingly missing the big ideas.

During the Bris (Lech Lecha 15:7-21), Hashem says your children will be strangers...for 400 years. However, it says in Bo (12:41) that the Bnei Yisrael went out at the end of 430 years. He differentiates that, indeed, "your children" (starting from Yitzchak) will be strangers for 400 years, but it will be 430 years from the Bris bein haBesarim. Yitzchak was born when Avraham was 100, so the Bris was when he was 70. We know he was in Eretz Canaan because Hashem says He took Avram out of Ur Kasdim to give him "this land".

Another indication that pesukim 7-21 were prior to 1-6 is that the gemara (Brachos 7b) says that Avraham was the first to refer to Hashem as Adon and quotes Pasuk 8. If 1-6 came before 8, the gemara should have quoted pasuk 2 where Avram also uses adnus.

Another indication that pesukim 7-21 were prior to 1-6 is that Avram asks Hashem for a sign that he will posess the land. That's a massive short-coming of Emunah since Hashem just told him that he'll get the land. If 7-21 came first, then the request makes sense- Hashem never promised Avram children yet (that's in 1-6), just the land. Avraham is concerned that Hashem will give the land, but Avram will die without an heir. (Avram wants a sign for long-term ownership.) [#2-#3 don't indicate age, just the order]

An indication that 1-6 was said at a different time as 7-21 (but not of age or order) is that 1-6 was at night (Machaze (1) is a night vision; Count the stars [5]). 7-21 was in the day (the sun was setting[12]

[Another answer to this question is how many answers there will be to this question]

I'm told the Netziv doesn't like this, and says that the 430 count is from when Avram turned 70 and things started changing in his life ... though the command to move to Israel wouldn't happen for another five years.
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ShalomAug 2 '10 at 20:37

1

As to answers on this question, we may have the Nesiim effect -- everyone figures they'll leave the easy answers to others, but that's really just a mask for laziness!
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ShalomAug 2 '10 at 20:38

I maintain a similar concern to Shalom's. Don't be bashful, people!
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Isaac MosesAug 2 '10 at 20:57

1

The Gra on the Seder Olam also didn't like it. His 2 problems are saying Avraham was there 2x (not a strong kasha, I can elaborate if you request) and saying that the parshios are not consecutive- which the Chizkuni makes good arguments to support.
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YDKAug 2 '10 at 20:59

Shlomo HaMelech made 10 golden menorahs for the Temple (Divrei HaYamim 2, ch. 4), each containing 7 lamps, thus 70 lamps in total. Baal HaTurim finds a hint to this in the verse כן עשה את המנורה -- the value of כן is 70, and the value of עשה equals that of שלמה.

Yehoshua (or was it moshe?) wrote the Torah in 70 languages on stones in the Yarden.

The Tanakh was translated by 70 rabbis from Hebrew to Greek (The Talmud says 72 (megilla 9b), but maybe the Latin "septuagint" is just rounding down. In any case, as I have heard from my rabbi, it was no miracle that all 72 rabbis--in separate rooms--came up with the same translation. it would have been a miracle to put 72 rabbis in the SAME room and have them agree!)

The second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE (may it be rebuilt speedily in our days!)

There's an apparent contradiction between R' Ashi's opinion in Pesachim and his opinion in Zevachim; if I understand correctly, in Pesachim, he holds "mishras / ta'am k'ikar medeoraysa", there's a general principle that if food A absorbs a good deal of food B, it now takes on the added halachos of food B. (E.g. if food B is non-kosher). But in Zevachim, concerning various sacrificial meats that absorb from one another, it seems that "mishras / ta'am k'ikar" is ignored, and a specialized kodshim answer is given instead. That's the question.

Rabbi Engel published a book in 1889 giving no less than seventy different ways to answer this problem!

At one point I'd heard there were 70 answers to the question of "what's the miracle of the first night of chanukah", but then they got up to 100 answers (and I think published it as "ner leme'ah").